Research

In this era of dwindling government research funding and support for research fellowships, the ASE Foundation plays a crucial role in supporting the progress and future of our field through investment in the discovery process and in the careers of investigators. Funding in this area preserves dedicated time for investigators through research grants, and also creates opportunities for researchers to interact with global experts in cardiovascular ultrasound, building relationships that lead to future research and professional collaborations.

Research Investigator Support

Research Studies 

Early-career Development Grant for Echo Scientists (EDGES) Request for Application

Federal and American Heart Association funding opportunities for early career scientists in cardiovascular imaging are continuing to decline. Accordingly, other societal awards can potentially play an increasing role to promote research activities for those investigators who are early in their professional careers in field of echocardiography. The EDGES Grant is designed to address this gap. It also aligns with several important initiatives set forward by the ASE which include providing support and professional development opportunities for early career members in the Society, and the desire to create avenues for the continued evolution of echocardiography through technical advancement and through new applications to meet the complex needs of increasingly complex patient populations. The grant will provide three grants of $25K maximum to fund projects that will address a clinical gap in cardiovascular ultrasound imaging through research led by an early career scientist. An early career scientist is defined as an eligible member that has completed their terminal degree of training within seven years of submitting the application.

Application is closed. More information available here.

EDGES Grant Recipients

Chieh-Ju Chao, MD, an academic cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., plans to use the funding for a collaborative project he is spearheading between Mayo Clinic and Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence that seeks to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled echocardiography copilot reporting system. Xuan Ding, MD, PhD, a cardiovascular disease fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., will use the grant to fund his research interests in the development of cardiovascular ultrasound and echocardiographic technology and its applications to clinical cardiovascular medicine. Son “Sonny” Duong, MD, MS,  an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at the Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Heart Center and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, secured the funding for his research focused on the utilization of large data sets and machine-learning technologies to analyze cardiac diagnostics and patient risk prediction.

Impact of Echo Report Recommendations for Severe Valvular Heart Disease Research Grant

The Impact of Echo Report Recommendations for Severe Valvular Heart Disease Research Grant will provide 2-year funding that aims to examine the impact of embedded echocardiography report interventions on referral patterns and outcomes in patients newly diagnosed by echocardiography with severe aortic stenosis (AS). This study in particular will examine the role of a primary care provider and referral patterns to a cardiac specialist for patients presenting with severe AS, though the study may be expanded to include other forms of severe valve disease. One grant will be awarded by ASE through its Foundation, with the support of funding from Edwards Lifesciences.

Application is closed. More information available here.

 

Pamela S. Douglas, MD, FASE Research Scholar Award

NEW: The Pamela S. Douglas, MD, FASE Research Scholar Award will support the future of echocardiographic research by granting one-year (12 months) scholarships to support clinical or translational research scholars in advanced cardiovascular ultrasound research. The Pamela S. Douglas, MD, FASE Research Scholar Fund of $375,000 will support a total of five, one-year scholarships of $75,000 each. One scholarship of $75,000 USD will be awarded every alternate year.

Application for 2023 funding is closed. More information available here.

 

2021 Pamela S. Douglas, MD, FASE Research Scholar Award Recipient

Yasufumi Nagata, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital

“I am deeply grateful and excited to receive the Pamela S. Douglas, MD, FASE Research Scholar Award. It will advance my career growth as an independent investigator conducting impactful echocardiography-based research. It provides an opportunity to connect advanced echocardiographic technology with physiology to find innovative solutions for reducing mitral valve regurgitation and heart failure in patients with cardiac dysfunction. I am inspired by the leadership role model of Dr. Pamela Douglas and by mentors who include Drs. Judy Hung and Robert Levine in Boston, Yutaka Otsuji and Masaaki Takeuchi of Sangyo Medical University, William Zoghbi and Carlos El-Tallawi with their novel measurement of 3D mitral valve strain as a noninvasive window into cardiac biomechanics, and Joyce Bischoff and Elena Aikawa in Boston to bridge echocardiography with cellular and molecular therapeutic targets for clinical translation and improved patient outcomes.”

 


Innovation in Cardiovascular Ultrasound Research Grants

In 2021, the ASE Foundation offered two grants of up to $45,000 each for meritorious echocardiographic research proposals relevant to the innovation cardiovascular ultrasound. Of particular interest were proposals that expand the key role of echocardiography, or the development of novel technology, in clinical diagnosis or management. Additional information available here.

2021 Innovation in Cardiovascular Ultrasound Research Grant Recipients

  • Olivier Villemain, MD, PhD, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto for “Myocardial Stiffness and Coronary Microperfusion Assessment for Early Detection of Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy in Children After Cardiac Transplantation: Human Application of Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging”
  • Bethel Woldu, MD, MPH, Medstar Heart and Vascular Institute for “Non-invasive Assessment of Myocardial Work to Differentiate TTR Cardiac Amyloidosis from Hypertensive Cardiomyopathy”

E21 Research Grant for Clinician-Scientist and Engineering Partnership Program

This program provided funding for research that aimed to use engineering solutions to solve a relevant clinical problem in cardiovascular ultrasound. In 2019, the ASE Foundation offered funding in partnership with the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, the National Board of Echocardiography, Inc., Bracco, Inc., and Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. Three grants of up to $200,000 each were available and the recipients were also eligible for travel support to present the results of their projects at future ASE and AIUM scientific meetings.

2019 E21 Research Grant Recipients

  • Oliver Kripfgans, PhD, FAIUM, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, for Bedside Cardiovascular Monitoring of Neonates with Patent Ductus Arteriosus
  • Babak Nazer, MD, Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, for Echocardiographic Optimization of Ultrasound Septal Reduction for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
  • Patricia Pellikka, MD, FASE, Division of Cardiovascular Ultrasound, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, for DeepEcho: Echocardiogram Image Normalization Using Deep Learning for Detection and Prognostication of Heart Failure


The ASE Foundation Value Grant

The Foundation’s 2014 Value Grant was a $200,000 multi-year grant targeting fusion imaging. Learn more about this study here: “Echocardiographic Evaluation of Hemodynamic Significance of Coronary Stenosis in Patients with Chest Pain Undergoing CT Angiography.”

2014 – 2015 Value Grant Recipient  

  • Victor Mor-Avi, PhD, FASE, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Victor Mor-Avi, PhD, FASE, presented the results of this research project at the 2017 Scientific Sessions. The full presentation is available below:

 


Research Investigator Support  

The presentation of original research on the latest advances in cardiovascular ultrasound from around the world is an integral component of ASE’s educational meetings. Young researchers are the scientific heart of our field, and each year ASE Foundation funding supports competitions to recognize exceptional work and travel grants to assist investigators with their travel expenses.

Top Investigator Travel Grant

The presentation of original research from around the world illustrating exciting new developments in cardiovascular ultrasound is an integral component of ASE’s Annual Scientific Sessions. Each year, a special group of investigators are selected as the ASE Foundation’s Top Investigators. These early career abstract presenters are selected by the Abstract Chairs based on the scientific merit of their research projects and are awarded grants to offset his/her Scientific Sessions travel expenses. Beginning in 2018, the Alan S. Pearlman Research Award was established to honor Dr. Pearlman’s ten years of service as JASE Editor-In-Chief. Supported by a grant to the ASE Foundation by Elsevier, this annual award of $1,000 is given to the overall highest scoring early career investigator. New in 2023, the Michael H. Picard Research Award was established to honor Dr. Picard’s five years of service as JASE Editor-In-Chief. Supported by a grant to the ASE Foundation by Elsevier, this annual award of $1,000 will be given to the overall highest scoring abstract submitted to the annual ASE Scientific Sessions by a trainee.

To be eligible for consideration for a 2023 Top Investigator Travel Grant, investigators must have an abstract of original research accepted for presentation at ASE 2023.

2023 Alan S. Pearlman Research Award Winner:
Shani Dahan, MD – Division of Cardiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brookline, MA

2023 Michael H. Picard Research Award Winner:
Alex D’Amico, MD – University of Alabama at Birmingham, Division of Cardiology, Birmingham, AL

2023 Top Investigator Grant Recipients

Mounir Al-Gibbaw, MD – Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN
Rowa Attar, MD – Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX
Richard Carrick, MD – Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Michel Chedid El Helou, MD – Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
Cheng Chen, PhD – University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Lakshay Chopra, MD – Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
Anna Curtis, MD – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Ankur Dalsania, MD – Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
Flora Huang, MD – Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Alejandra Iturralde, MD – Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Camryn Kimura – Scripps Mercy Hospital, Providence, RI
Ethan Knight, BS – Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Josephine Lamp, BS – University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Jonas Marx, MD – Carrdiovascular Research Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
Fangmin Meng, MD – Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
David Mittelstein, MD – Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, San Diego, CA
Joanna Nelson, MD – Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY
Joy Ong – National University Heart Centre Singapore, Singapore
Anders Pedersen, MD – Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
Isadora Sande Mathias, MD – Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, Houston, TX
Nathanael Tran, MD – Einstein Medical Center, Philadephia, PA
Yuanfeng Wu, MD – Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Click here for a list of past Top Investigator Travel Grant recipients.


Arthur E. Weyman Young Investigator’s Award Competition

Young investigators under the age of 40 who are no more than five years from the end of their training are eligible for this annual competition supported by the National Board of Echocardiography (NBE) in honor of their first president, Arthur E. Weyman, MD, FASE. Four finalists are selected to present their research to a panel of experts during the opening plenary sessions of the Annual ASE Scientific Sessions in June. The winner is then invited to present his/her research at the upcoming European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging’s EuroEcho-Imaging meeting in December, and the Japanese Society of Echocardiography’s Annual Scientific Meeting the following spring.

2023 Arthur E. Weyman Young Investigator’s Award Competition Winner:
Jeremy Slivnick, MD, FASE from University of Chicago Medical Center

 

Click here for a list of past Arthur E. Weyman Young Investigator’s Award Competition winners.

To be eligible for consideration for the 2023 competition, investigators must have an abstract of original research accepted for presentation at ASE 2023.

 

 

 

 


Brian Haluska Sonographer Research Award Competition

The ASE Foundation’s annual Sonographer Investigator’s Award Competition was renamed as the Brian Haluska Sonographer Research Award Competition to honor the late Brian Haluska, PhD, MSC (HONS), MSC, RDCS, AMS, FASE and his incredible contributions to sonographer-led research over the course of his career. Designed to highlight and support sonographer-led research, this annual competition recognizes non-physicians who served as the primary investigator on their project of original research. Four finalists are selected to present their work to a panel of judges during the ASE Annual Scientific Sessions.

2023 Brian Haluska Sonographer Research Award Competition Winner:
Nicole Guerrera, RDCS from Yale University School of Medicine

 

Click here for a list of past Sonographer Investigator’s Award Competition winners.

To be eligible for consideration for the 2023 competition, investigators must have an abstract of original research accepted for presentation at ASE 2023.

 

 


TOMTEC Innovator Research Travel Grant

Supported by a grant to the ASE Foundation from TOMTEC Imaging Systems, this annual award is given to assist a promising young researcher presenting his/her work at the ASE Annual Scientific Sessions. Application is open to investigators under 40 years of age who have an abstract accepted for presentation in one of the following research categories: novel technologies (3D, Doppler, or strain), valvular heart disease, or ventricular function. For more than 20 years, TOMTEC has driven innovations in echocardiography and the ASE Foundation thanks them for investing in the young researchers who will continue to drive our field forward.

 

2023 TOMTEC Innovator Research Grant Recipient:
Juan Cotella, MD, from University of Chigaco Medical Center.

Click here for a complete list of the TOMTEC Innovator Research Travel Grant recipients.

Investigators must have an abstract of original research accepted for presentation at ASE 2023 to be eligible to apply. Accepted abstract presenters will receive instructions for application in their acceptance notifications.